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New Brics bank opens for business: Xinhua

Tue, Jul 21, 2015 - 10:19 AM

[SHANGHAI] The new Brics bank opened for business in Shanghai on Tuesday, China's official Xinhua news agency reported.

The so-called emerging BRICS countries are made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and their New Development Bank has been seen as a challenge to the Washington-based International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

The opening - announced in a short despatch - comes two weeks after a Brics summit hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Moscow - which has suffered huge currency fluctuations and struggled to attract investors since the outbreak of the crisis in Ukraine - sees the bank and a Brics currency reserve pool as an alternative to international financial institutions like the IMF and World Bank that are dominated by the United States.

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At the time of the summit Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in a statement that Brics "illustrates a new polycentric system of international relations" demonstrating the increasing influence of "new centres of power".